Kingdom of the Hollows
by NekoDae
Summary: When the war is over and all manner of mythical creatures converge Karakura what will happen when it's revealed that one strawberry in particular is in the middle of it all?
1. I Don't Sparkle

Max - Minna-san, Ohayō

Ichigo - Yo *waves*

Sora - *Grins* Ohayō

Max - Welcome to the first instalment of 'Kingdom of the Hollows'

Ichigo & Sora - Yeah, what she said

Max - *Looks at the two suspiciously* alright. Ignoring those two for now. I don't own Bleach or Kingdom Hearts, I don't make any money from this story and I do this only for my own amusement.

* * *

A boy, a teen of around sixteen walked through the dim streets of his home town, walking slowly despite the obvious lack of streetlight. His bright orange mane of hair was barely visible in the gloom and, as he turned onto his street, he felt someone's eyes on him. Spinning around Ichigo Kurosaki peered into the gloom, searching for the eyes that he could feel watching him intently _there_. The eyes were odd, nothing that Ichigo had ever seen before, not even during his time as a Shinigami-Daikō.

Backing up into the cone of light that was presented by a streetlight Ichigo watched morbidly as the thing followed him.

It was short and totally black, it's round head perched on a skinny body and luminous golden eyes peered up at him curiously. Ribbon like ears sprung up from it's head and it's movements were jerky, as if it was nervous.

That was, of course, until it lunged. The thing aimed for Ichigo's head and it was mostly due to his training, both as a shinigami and with his father, that he dodged it _seems like dad did something right…_"what the hell is this thing?" he dodged another lunge _there's more of them?_ He thought, instinctively lashing out at the blob-like thing as it came from the side.

The thing connected with his leg and, instead of going flying as Ichigo expected, it clung on tightly. It seemed that this was some sort of signal because, once Ichigo ripped the first black thing from his leg, another latched on, then another and Ichigo was quickly ripping them of various parts of his body but making little headway against the growing number of the black things.

Taking a step back Ichigo fell back with a strangled yelp, his ankle catching the edge of the footpath. This seemed to excite his attackers because Ichigo was almost completely swarmed before long, the black beings merging together to create a inky black pool under Ichigo and, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't free himself. Throwing an arm out behind him Ichigo struggled to find something to grab onto, something to stop his slow decent into the darkness, but he was in the middle of the footpath with walls on one side and the road on the other _damnit all_ Ichigo fought his bonds harder _I will not go down this way_ Ichigo's thoughts were getting panicked now as the blackness beneath him reached his nose, cutting off his air _I will not go down this way damnit_ he knew that it couldn't be helped now, there was nothing there and no-one was around to help him but he had to keep trying, it just wasn't like him to give up. The blackness was over his head now, pulling his wrist into the darkness agonisingly slow and his chest was burning from the lack of oxygen _damnit…_When it was almost over, Ichigo could feel his body shutting down, a hand dived into the dark and grabbed Ichigo's wrist, pulling him back up with a firm tug. It was agonising, the darkness didn't want to let go and neither did the hand but, slowly, Ichigo's face was revealed.

Once his mouth was above the level of the darkness Ichigo didn't waste any time pulling in huge gulps of air, feeling the dizziness fade slightly as the grip from his unknown saviour changed, wrapping it's self just under his arms instead, and another fierce tug pulled him out of the dark to the waistband of his black jeans. Looking down the strawberry took in what he could see.

A skinny pair of arms surrounded his chest, the subtle muscles tensed, and a blue wrist band surrounded the right wrist and from the occasional grunt coming from behind him, usually just after a strong pull, Ichigo guessed that his saviour was male.

Once Ichigo could see his knees the grip on him changed again. An arm dropped from his chest and, after some repositioning, Ichigo felt a arm snake under his knees, pulling him from the pool with one last, hard tug.

Looking up Ichigo could see a shock of spiky brown hair and a pair of glowing red eyes, a grin revealed a pair of extra spiky canines and in a flash he was sitting propped up against the fence across the street "stay here" in a flash of light the mysterious boy was back across the street, swinging at the black things with a odd, key-shaped blade. The only thing that came to mind was _what. The. Hell?_

Less than a minute later the boy was walking back across the street, the blade had disappeared in another flash of light. As he kneeled down just in front of Ichigo, looking intently at him "how are you feeling?"

For a moment it seemed that Ichigo's voice had fled but he eventually found it and managed to stutter out a reply "f-fine" the boy nodded and stood up, offering Ichigo a hand. Taking the proffered hand Ichigo levered himself up, wobbling slightly "what the hell were those things?"

"dangerous" gripping Ichigo's shoulder the boy steadied him as they walked down the street "you'll probably feel weak for a while so I'd suggest getting a good nights sleep" the smaller hand removed it's self from Ichigo's shoulder when he stopped outside the clinic.

"Bu-…" a glare silenced the strawberry

"go inside, eat something and get some rest" another sharp grin "see ya round" with a half wave he disappeared _well that was…odd_

As Ichigo walked inside the clinic he failed to notice a pair of eyes watching him from the neighbours roof, turning away only when the light flicked on in the first second floor window and the curtains above the bed slid closed.

* * *

Sky blue eyes slowly opened, taking in the familiar scents of the room before yawning widely and throwing back the covers. The room was large with a tidy look and large windows over looking the nearby town, with a thin layer of fog covering it like a blanket. His ears picked up the faint sounds of a scuffle coming from the floor below and he sighed, running a hand through his spiky, brown hair _lovely. Just woke up and they're already at it_

The boys name was Sora Tatsumaki and he, along with his friends, would be starting their first day in the town of Karakura. Taking one last glance out of the window Sora walked to his en suite and pulled the door closed behind him, locking the door while he waited for the water to heat up.

Twenty minutes later Sora walked into the large kitchen and was greeted by the other people around the room.

On the far side of the kitchen island were the only girls in the house, and the resident Clairvoyant and mind reader pair, Naminé and Kairi Tsuyo. Buttering toast was Axel Migaki, his spiky, wild red hair was easy to spot, and next to him was Riku Tetsu, his silver hair hung around his shoulders in a natural, choppy way and his ears twitched at Sora's entrance. Standing next to the door was Sora's brother Roxas Tatsumaki, his short, spiky, blond hair and crimson eyes a stark contrast to Sora's features

"hey bro"

"Hey" Sora grinned at Roxas as he walked further into the room "nothing I can do?"

"no, we're just finishing up. You can help tomorrow" Kairi smiled and set a plate of eggs and bacon in front of both Sora and Roxas, who took the seat next to him

"right" sprinkling some salt on his eggs Sora speared a piece with his fork and put it In his mouth, chewing slowly.

The thing about these teens is that they're not really teens, they're things that are considered mythical and non-existent. The majority of them are vampires; Axel, Sora and Roxas have had centuries to hone their vampiric skills and they now have territory in the whole of the Karakura area, including the ranges surrounding half of the city.

Standing from the table Sora slipped his dishes into the dishwasher and closed it , pulling open the fridge with his free hand and grabbing a packet of blood.

Checking the label on the front Sora substituted it for another, again checking the label, and closed the fridge door. Biting into the bag Sora took a long suck of the blood, marked 'A' on the bag, and grinned as he walked out of the room, glancing at the clock sora noted that it was almost eight.

"goin' out?" Sora didn't even have to turn to know that Axel was walking up behind him, a bag of AB negative in his hand

"just doing a patrol of the housing district" Sora looked out over the city. From the front door you could look over all of Karakura, it was an added bonus that no-one came up the hill that the house was on or they'd be screwed.

"checkin' on the Kid?"

"yeah that too," Sora tipped the empty bag of blood upside down, catching the last dribble of blood in his mouth "Heartless attacks can be brutal on humans" licking his lips Axel held out his hand for the empty bag

"right. We'll head out soon so don't hog all the action" Sora chuckled before disappearing. Re-appearing on the edge of the sheer cliff that sat around a 100 meters from the house and dropped straight down for around 300 meters before slowly sloping out, small ledges gave a place for a few stunted trees to grow and Sora used these to make his way down the cliff, free-falling to each one.

At the base of the cliff Sora looked around for a moment before disappearing once again, speeding towards main Karakura.

Having spent around four hours scouring the housing district for heartless, having a few scuffles with some dusks, Sora made his way towards his favourite haunt. The place in question looked out over Karakura from up a sloping hill and Sora came up here to think or clear his head. Sitting with his back against the railing Sora looked at the sky, black with twinkling pricks and a full moon. Closing his eyes Sora stretched out his senses and saw the city in a very different light _Riku…Axel…human…human…human…Roxas…human…heartless_ eyes snapping open Sora lunged forward and careened towards the housing area.

There were three heartless on that same street, closing in on the house of the orange haired teen _damnit_. Jumping from roof to roof Sora flashed in and out of sight until he came to the right street, only to find no sign of the heartless. Jumping from the roof he was on Sora walked cautiously down the street, glancing around him with teeth bared i_t is way to quiet, heartless don't just disappear…I'd have felt if anyone-…_ growling Sora spun around, lashing out and catching a shadow around the head as it leapt at his back "gotcha"

With red eyes Sora summoned his blade and ran the shadow through, slashing at another that was coming up under his feet. Spearing a shadow on the key Sora watched cautiously as a black rip appeared off to his right and a large hollow ambled out "well you're an ugly bugger aren't ya?" glancing over his shoulder Sora spotted Roxas standing on the roof of a house and jump down, landing next to Sora. The heartless in question was large with hunched shoulders, long claws, gold eyes and it was drooling sloppily on the side walk. Roxas held out his left arm and a key appeared in it after a bright flash, the key was gold with a silver handle and looked like a negative version of Sora's Kingdom key "ready"

"oh hell yeah" the boys dodged to either side of the heartless as it lunged forward with a surprising speed and dug it's claws into the pavement where Sora was standing just a second before "damn, that's things fast too" dodging another swipe and lashing out with the key blades Sora and Roxas slowly lured the heartless to the next street over. Big heartless are known for their strength not their speed and damn this thing was fast.

It seemed to go mostly after Sora, lashing at Roxas when he got to close, and it seemed to be a lot more durable than other heartless, more so than even the largest heartless or hollows. Yes, vampires fought hollows too and they had caused confusion for Shinigami for centuries, though they tend to keep the heartless under control and, every now and then, Togabito.

Executing a flurry of blows from either side the heartless shook violently before slowly fading away. Releasing the blades both keys disappeared in almost simultaneous flashes of white and the two turned to each other before grinning, chuckling slightly

"too easy"

"you think everything's too easy" Sora said dryly, chuckling as Roxas punched him lightly in the shoulder. Turning around both boys stopped chuckling when they saw someone standing at the end of the street, mouth agape

"fuck"

"ditto…" Sora knew he had seen him somewhere before _you don't just forget someone with hair like that._ The orange haired teen seemed wary, staying down the other end of the street and away from the two. Sora had the urge to face palm when he realised just who was, settling instead for closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose

"what's up?" opening one eye Sora glanced at his brother and sighed

"he's the one from last night" Roxas looked at the teen

"well they sure know how to pick 'em "

"yeah" Sora took a step forward and the orange haired teen took one back, reaching over his shoulder for something before swearing quietly. Sora had no trouble hearing the profanity and, by the chuckle from next to him, neither did Roxas.

The teen wasted no time in turning and speeding down the street towards his house, glancing back and swearing again when he spotted Sora and Roxas running behind him.

* * *

There was something off about these two, something dark that even the Espada and Aizen lacked_ why does this crap always happen to me?_ He roared in his mind as he turned the corner onto the familiar street. Having seen only the end of the battle between the two boys and the odd being Ichigo had the right to be wary, they couldn't be Shinigami fighting some augmented hollow because then they'd have been invisible to him and they didn't look like Shinigami. Not even a Shinigami in Gigai

Ichigo only stopped when he was outside the Clinic, turning back to see the two standing on the corner, looking at him. One, in grey cargo pants and jacket with a red tank underneath, looked at him with curious red eyes before turning to the other and murmuring something in his ear while the other, in a navy vest-hoodie with black cargo pants and a black top, never took his eyes off him, the blue orbs felt like the were looking at his very Soul. Ichigo turned to unlock the gate and walk inside while the two younger looking teens walked away, disappearing from view quickly.

When Ichigo opened the door he ducked, his father sailing over his head "well done my son. I have trained you well" ever since the winter war had ended Isshin Kurosaki had changed. He was still the lovable if idiotic father, still ambushing Ichigo when he came home and still crying to Misaki's memorial poster whenever Ichigo, Karin or Yuzu had a 'rebellious moment' but whenever a hollow appeared either Isshin or one of Ichigo's friends would handle it, Isshin during the day and Ichigo's friends during the night.

"che, I've faced worse from Rukia" Ichigo's scowl deepened and he stepped out of his shoes before walking further into the house. The shinigami didn't visit Ichigo, probably thought that it would just make things worse for him now that the war was over, and Ichigo was as lonely as ever. He still hung out at the shoten and visited the Vizards, training his physical body instead of a spiritual one, but they didn't include him in any of the meetings or talk about spiritual matters with him. The only reason Ichigo knew anything was because of Orihime, Chad, Uryuu and the Karakura Raizers and, if he was being honest with himself, Ichigo was getting severally pissed off about the whole thing.

Ichigo was now in his last year of school and had bought himself a flat further into the city but came to the clinic each Sunday for a family meal. The day before he had been asked to help at the clinic after a unusually bad accident on the corner had the clinic filled to capacity with no helping staff.

"Ichi-nii" Karin smiled, standing up from the couch to hug the strawberry

"Karin-chan" ruffling his younger sisters hair Ichigo put the two strange boys to the back of his mind as he was welcomed into the warmth and familiarity of his family

"Ichi-nii" Yuzu came out of the kitchen, a apron around her middle and a spatula in hand, and hugged Ichigo tightly "dinner is in about ten minutes" smiling happily Yuzu sped back into the kitchen, leaving Ichigo to side-step a rugby tackle made by his father. Karin watched, grinning slightly, as her older brother and her father wrestled, Isshin was on his stomach with Ichigo sitting on his back, holding his arms with one hand and pushing the side of his face into the carpet with the other "say uncle"

"never" showing a burst of the strength he was regarded for as a captain Isshin Kurosaki pulled his arms from Ichigo's hand with a jerk and pushed himself from the floor, using the fact that Ichigo was thrown from his back to spin around and capture his son's arms with his hands, reversing the position that he was in just a second before "say uncle"

"never"

The two were still wrestling when Yuzu's head appeared outside the kitchen again "dinner's ready, Karin-chan can you help me set it out?" nodding the dark-haired twin stood and, making her way around the wrestling pair, took the food handed to her by her sister before making her way back into the dining room, skirting the wrestling pair once again to set the dish on the table.

"Ichi-nii, tou-san, dinner's ready" getting no response out of the two Karin shrugged and walked back over to the kitchen, receiving another dish from Yuzu to set on the table, followed by her sister who held the rice cooker.

* * *

Sora sat on the roof of the house next door to the clinic, watching the family through the window. Looking outwardly calm Sora's mind was whirling with questions "why…?"

_Why did the heartless want him? why now? what changed? What makes this boy so special? why did a reaper come?_ It was known for heartless to go after one person in particular, Sora knew that, but they didn't attack them quite this actively unless they were something special. They usually just stayed in the general vicinity of the target or the targets family and friends and attacked at random times, usually only with shadows, but these were meditated, seemingly random attacks.

_A reaper…_ all vampires knew of reapers. They were heartless that had been given a vital mutation to their genetics, making them stronger and far more intelligent than the average hollow. Some vampires thought that they were a mutation themselves and, having the speed of a shadow, the claws of a dusk, the stature of a demi-shadow and more brains than them all, and it was totally possible but a specimen was needed and that was something that they didn't have.

Sora's unfocused eyes snapped back to attention as the family stood from the table. The orange haired boy helped the two younger girls tidying up the table while the older man _must be the father_ said something before departing through another door. He could hear the boy walking up the stairs now and moved to the roof across from his window, light spilling through the glass. Sora got to the window just as the boy opened the door.

Watching, Sora saw him slide a hand under his pillow to retrieve a pair of what looked like pyjama pants and a tank top before walking back out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. _And so it begins_ Sora had to try to figure out why the boy was wanted by the heartless so badly. If he got it wrong then the boy could be lost into the depths of the heartless nest, a place that you couldn't return from. Sora put his head into his hands, concentrating very hard.

A map of Karakura Town appears in Sora's mind, just infront of his eyes. Red dots created a scattering around the town but there were a clump, only around ten though that was still more than any other cluster, that was situated around one area in particular. The house belonging to the orange-haired boy.

_Damnit all_ Sora's eyes snapped open, tinted red. All vampires have internal tracking systems, these are usually used to find heartless attacks but can sometimes be used to find people who the vampire is familiar with. People can only be found if the vampire has previously drunk from them, even a drop of blood will suffice but the connection can only be made when blood is taken directly from the person, donated blood has been so processed that it doesn't create any sort of connection.

Hearing the door of the boys bedroom open once again Sora looked up to see the orange-haired teen enter the room. His hair was still dripping slightly, creating small wet patches on his shoulders and his tank-top covered chest. His towel was clutched loosely in his hand but was quickly slipped over the back of his desk-chair. The teen gave his closet a forlorn look and sighed "what're you so sad about?" the teen spun around, eyes wide and a fist flying forward. With a crunch it connected with the flesh of Sora's hand "that wasn't very nice…"

"who the hell are you?"

"Sora" releasing the teens fist Sora moved out of his crouch, sitting instead on the windowsill. Watching he teen as he sat on the edge of his bed

"Ichigo Kurosaki"

"strawberry, eh?" Sora chuckled, grinning when Ichigo scowled at him

"shut up. What the hell are you anyway?"

"hmmm?" looking at Ichigo Sora nodded in understanding a moment later "ah, about earlier. I kinda can't explain it in detail because you'd probably think I'm crazy"

A vein popped out of his head, showing his annoyance "okay. What was that thing you and the other boy were fighting then?"

"that…that was a heartless. They are creatures born from the darkness that resides in everyone's heart, they eat the souls of the pure-hearted in an attempt to remove all light from the world and plunge it into darkness. It's happened more than once before"

"a heartless? They don't sound to tough" Sora rolled his eyes

"che, yeah, they're harmless. They'll only swarm over you every chance they get until they manage to drag you down into their nest and make sure you're never seen again"

"sounds like hollows"

"no, they're defiantly different. Hollows allow the souls that they've consumed travel to the Soul Society when they're killed by a Soul Reaper. Heartless don't give the souls back, they just fade away"

"and why've they after me?" Ichigo put his head in his hands

"I'm not sure though there will be people stationed to watch over you from now on"

"damn, like the Seireitei all over again" Sora figured that he shouldn't have heard that and, if he wasn't a vampire, he was pretty sure he wouldn't have

'the Seireitei…? Damnit" jumping from the windowsill and pacing around the room "if you've been to the Seireitei then there's your reason"

"what?"

"the Seireitei represents the light f someone's Soul, Hueco Mundo represents the perverse, depraved, wanton nature of a persons Soul and hell represents the darkness in someone's Soul" Sora spun to face Ichigo, who was looking from the bed with wide eyes "Heartless crave the souls of those from the Soul Society over all others, though they can't travel there and Shinigami are to strong for even a Organisation member, they can rarely be controlled by the depraved souls of Hueco Mundo and only the Togabito and the Organization members have complete control over the heartless"

"you seem so well informed" Ichigo murmured, looking out the window for a moment

"yeah, well…I've been fighting these things for ages I gotta be" Sora muttered

"ages? You mean you're a shinigami?"

"shinigami?" Sora gave out one bitter laugh "if any of us meet a shinigami it's kill or be killed"

"so you're an Arrancar then?"

"no. we're something completely different"

"then what the hell are you?" Ichigo asked, keeping his voice down because his family was still awake, grabbing the front Sora's clothes

"you really want to know?" the boy just looked at Ichigo, who nodded slightly "alright then. I'm a vampire"

Ichigo blinked once, letting the statement before he laughed, releasing the boy's top "I did tell you that you wouldn't believe me"

"but vampires don't exist"

"you wanna bet?" the tone of Sora's voice had changed slightly, as it did whenever his fangs grew out, and that was what made Ichigo turn around.

When Ichigo saw Sora he took a step back, bumping the edge of his bed and falling backwards. Sora's eyes had turned blood red, his skin had gone from it's usual tanned colour to a tone more like that belonging to Tōshirō or Ukitake and, when he smiled, his canines were elongated and sharp "still so sure?" looking at the boy infront of him Sora's smile faded. Ichigo was pale and shaking with his pupils so small that his brown eyes looked huge.

Taking a step forward Sora stopped again, standing just infront of the bed "I'm just like you, you know"

"you're nothing like I am"

"I still eat normal food, I bleed, I still feel every emotion you do, I hate tofu and heavy rock, I love strawberries, I've seen more in my lifetime than anyone wants or needs to see…"

"but you're a vampire. Don't vampires kill people and drink their blood, sleep in coffins, only go out at night-…"

"not all true you know. Vampires do drink blood but most vamps only take a couple of pints from a couple of different people or drink blood that's given to us from a blood bank, depending on how old you are the sun will do anything from kill you to give you nothing worse than slight sun-burn and the whole 'sleeping in coffins' thing was started by vampires who were caught at dawn with no-where to hide during the day" Sora's eyes had reverted to their normal blue colour and he could feel his fangs reverting back to normal canines

"so you don't kill people for a meal?"

"nope, I and the other vampires in my family, have blood-bank donations brought to us each month"

"and you don't sparkle?" Sora paused for a moment before he burst out laughing

"no, I don't sparkle"

* * *

Max - you know the drill so please tell me what you think

Ichigo - *whispering to Sora*

Sora - *nodding and glancing at Max*

Max - *suspicious* Hmmm?

Okay, Some points to clear up.

**The Characters last names -**

_Naminé and Kairi Tsuyoi - Tsuyoi; Japanese for strong. If this isn't right then blame Google Translate_

_Axel Migaki - Migaki; Japanese for Shine. If this isn't right then blame Google Translate_

_Riku Tetsu - Tetsu; Japanese for "Iron,". If this isn't right then blame Google Translate_

_Roxas and Sora Tatsumaki - Tatsumaki: Japanese for Tornado. If this isn't right then blame Google Translate_

**Togabito - **For those who haven't seen bleach episode 299 or trailer for the fourth bleach movie here's a little lesson for ya. Togabito are the Souls condemned to hell for heinous acts they performed during their lives, they are bound by chains for all eternity.

**Mapping / Sensing - **The ability is basically a map of the current area. This map can show the recent sites of heartless attacks, hollow attacks or the locations of humans that the specific vampire has recently drunk from. Blood from the Blood Bank that Sora and co get doesn't count because it's been so filtered and sterilized that any possibility for a connection is severed. For good control of this power (eg keeping his/her eyes open and using it as a sense instead of a map) takes at least a century of vampirism.

**House on the hill -** In the story there is a range of hills surrounding Karakura. On the very top of one of those hills is a mansion that has been 'abandoned' by the previous owners after a rock fall. The vampires have cleared the rock fall away and now live in the mansion, keeping the façade of it being empty.

**Summoning the key blade - **The key blade is a special weapon given to any vampire, the vampire receiving this blade after an amount of control is shown for their blood urges and such. It is given in much the same way as a Zanpakuto and can only be summoned when the vampires vampire side is out (eg fangs, pale skin and re eyes)

**Ichigo's sensing of danger - **This sense is the natural fight or flight reflexes of any other being (human, animal, shinigami etc) when they come across a vampire fighting with a key blade.

**Changing from blue to red eyes - **the change from red to blue eyes signals the vampire is going fro basically a normal, if strong and spiritually aware human, to using their vampire powers.

**Roxas's red eyes - **Roxas was born with rust-colored eyes and they turned a more crimson colour as he grew up. There is still a lot of difference between his eyes and the red eyes he has when he's using his vampire powers


	2. Super Ninjas and Movie Trips

Max - Ōhayo, minna-san

Ichigo - Ditto

Sora - Mmmm…

Max - *Stares at Ichigo* What did you tell him?

Ichigo - Mandy, The random-ass ideas that you have for / incorporate into, your stories…

Max - *Glares at Ichigo*

Ichigo - *Flinches*

Sora - I have a feeling that he's been exaggerating slightly…

Max - Yeah, lets just stick with that. Now, Ichigo-…

Ichigo - *Tied to a random chair* What the hell?

Max - Do the disclaimer and I'll think of releasing you

Ichigo - And If I don't

Max - You'll be spending a lot of time with Mr. Slinky

Ichigo - *Pales* Max doesn't own Bleach or Kingdom Hearts, doesn't make any money from this story and does this only for her own amusement.

Max - *Grabs Sora and walks away*

Ichigo - *Struggling* Get back here you-…

Max - *Slams a door* Okay, I'd like to make a quick request here. I've started a story based partly on the Dragins of Pern seires and i need a name for the haracters dragon. I've set up a poll on my profile about it and please, please, please go have a look, it makes it so much easier for me to post the 2nd chapter of it...

* * *

"_so you don't kill people for a meal?"_

"_nope, I and the other vampires in my family, have blood-bank donations brought to us each month"_

"_and you don't sparkle?" Sora paused for a moment before he burst out laughing_

"_no, I don't sparkle"_

* * *

Sora and Ichigo spent another hour or so talking. Ichigo told Sora about his childhood, family, friends and about his adventures in the Seireitei and, in return, Sora told Ichigo about some of his adventures with other vampires, his family and the crazy people he'd met on these adventures. It was during these last stories that Ichigo started yawning "you should be sleeping, sorry" rubbing the back of his head Sora got off the bed

"I'm fine"

Sora gave Ichigo a level look, to which the strawberry yawned "sure you are"

"fine, but-…"

Sora walked over to Ichigo, who was sitting on the edge of his bed with his elbow resting on the windowsill, and pushed on his forehead with one finger, pushing the teen backwards "sleep"

"yes mom" Ichigo rolled his eyes, putting his hands behind his head. This movement made the bottom of his tank top hitch up, revealing his well toned chest. Sora glanced at this small reveal of skin before rolling his eyes and jumping onto the windowsill, looking out across the town which was bathed white in the light of the full moon _Riku'll be having fun now, Roxas'll be at NightStalkers with Axel…they'll have to leave soon or risk the wrath of Kairi and Naminé_

"I thought you were leaving"

"I said you should sleep, I never said that I'd leave" looking at the strawberry Sora grinned impishly, chuckling when he heard the strawberry huff. Chuckling, Sora glanced at the teen lounging on the bed, looking so relaxed _there's something about him_ shaking his head ever so slightly Sora knelt down, balancing easily "see ya" he stayed on the ledge long enough to hear a 'hmmm?' from the teen before he lunched himself from the ledge. Landing easily on the next roof over Sora looked back at the house to see Ichigo looking from his bedroom window.

With a wave Sora jumped away, removing himself from the teens vision.

After doing rounds of the city until dawn Sora jumped wearily up from ledge to ledge, making his way back to the mansion and fighting daylight all the way.

Pulling open the door to the house Sora stepped into the familiar, gloomy hallway, hearing movement in the kitchen. Having taken off his shoes, Sora now stood in the doorway and watched the people making their way around the kitchen, making breakfast for themselves and their partners or leaning weapons against walls.

The first girl was short and skinny with short, black hair and a regular black headband with white lining. She wore a unzipped, dark grey combat vest with a black strap dangling from the right pocket overtop a navy blue tank top with white floral designs. She wore a white wristband on her right wrist and a grey, fingerless glove on her left arm. Her shorts are dark grey and has a black strap dangling from the left side. She also wore black, knee-high socks with white stripes at the top underneath dark tan boots that are slightly shorter than her socks.

The second woman has long brown hair, tied in a braid with a red ribbon at the bottom and at the top holding it in place, a carmine pink and white top held up by a string that wraps around her neck. Underneath this top, she has a pink dress with a horizontal white stripe near the bottom. She wears yet another dress underneath the first one, this dress being white and slightly longer than the first, a red jacket and a pair of tan boots.

The first of the two men had spiky, long brown hair and wore black gloves with belts on them, black, zipper-lined shoes, a silver necklace, white undershirt, short, black jacket which bears red wings on the back and has a red symbol on each shoulder. He wore three brown belts on his left forearm and has three buckles on his right and left thigh. His black pants also sport a vertical zipper going down the side of each leg. He also wore two brown belts and two black ones around his hips, all of which are quite loose except for one, a black one worn properly around his waist.

The fourth person in the group had short, spiky, blond hair and wore a grey, form-fitting vest with a silver wing design above his heart and a black belt going over his right shoulder which attaches to a sheath for his blade, black gloves, baggy black cargo pants and a pair of black combat boots.

"hey guys, when'd you get here" Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie and Leon turned to the doorway, grinning when they saw the smaller vampire.

"Sora" Yuffie, being a shadow, could manipulate her own shadow and the shadows of others to do what she needs at the time and it seemed that she used the abundant shadows in the room to transport herself over to Sora quicker than blinking. "hey, Yuffie" the short shadow had lunched herself at Sora, spinning him around instead of knocking him over, hugging him tightly.

"Yuffie, stop strangling the poor guy"

"Aww. You know you can't strangle a vampire Cloud" Cloud was a vampire of about the same age as Sora and Roxas, though the two were older by a few centuries.

"it obviously doesn't stop you from trying" Leon was facing the two shorter beings by the door, smirking slightly.

Leon was a adept, meaning that he could literally be driven up the wall. Adepts had the unique ability to alter their own gravity as long as they had some vertical wall to walk, meaning that they could walk up walls and on ceilings. Leon never really showed these abilities except in battle and in safe houses like the one that he was in right now.

"shut it Leon" Aerith placed a bowl of rice infront of an empty chair and Yuffie used her shadow tricks to get herself back to her chair, even though it was less than ten steps away.

"Sora, would you like some?" Sora smiled and shook his head, making his way past the pink haired girl to the plain looking mini-fridge

"no, I'm fine. Thanks anyway Aerith" grabbing a bag of 'A positive' Sora waved once to the four as he walked from the room, biting into the bag on his way up the stairs.

The first floor was the kitchen, garage and living room, a large room with cream carpets and huge, cushioned couches stationed infront of the big-screen TV. The second floor was games room, and a good sized room which was converted into a glass-house for Naminé and Kairi, the two used glass panes to divide the room into different sections like herbs, vegetables, purely medicinal plants and some fruits. The third and fourth floors were rooms for all of the occupants, and potential occupants, of the house and each room had a en suite and soundproofing, since some people liked to play very loud music at all times of the day and night. Under the mansion was a large, hollow space inside the cliff and, with a trapdoor under the staircase, it was the perfect place to train with and enhance someone's powers.

This space had a few different rooms along the base of it as storage and to hold a special sort of spring which healed injuries that were given during training.

Sora's room was on the third floor of the mansion and had a perfect view of Karakura, though at times like this Sora had to close the blinds, cutting off his view from the city until the next night.

Hanging his jacket on one of the hooks Sora stripped off his tight black top, undid the clasp of his belt, the buttons and zip of his cargoes and let the black fabric fall in a heap on the cream carpet. Not even bothering to pick the pants or top up Sora slid in-between the cool blue sheets covering his bed, falling asleep just after his head hit the pillow.

* * *

While the day was ending for Sora it was just starting for Ichigo.

After the vampire had left late last night Ichigo had laid awake until the early hours of the morning, thinking about their conversation.

"_you really want to know?" he looked up at me and I felt myself nod "alright then. I'm a vampire"_

_I blinked once, letting the statement before I laughed, releasing the boy's top "I did tell you that you wouldn't believe me"_

"_but vampires don't exist"_

"_you wanna bet?" the tone of Sora's voice had changed slightly and that was what made me turn around._

_What I saw made me step back in fright, bumping the edge of the bed and falling backwards. Sora's eyes had turned blood red, his skin had gone from it's usual tanned colour to a tone more like that belonging to Tōshirō or Ukitake and, when he smiled, his canines were elongated and sharp "still so sure?" I could feel myself shaking and, when his smile disappeared, I stopped shaking ever so slightly. Though I moved back a little more when he took a step forward, his eyes and skin now back to normal. Stopping just infront of the bed I could only just hear his murmur "I'm just like you, you know"_

"_you're nothing like I am"_

"_I still eat normal food, I bleed, I still feel every emotion you do, I hate tofu and heavy rock, I love strawberries, I've seen more in my lifetime than anyone wants or needs to see…" when he said that last statement he looked at me and what I saw was so familiar. Eyes, on a face that looked so young, that looked like they would belong to someone older, more experienced._

Looking back it was hard to doubt the fact that Sora was what he said he was, though that scared the hell out of Ichigo he couldn't deny it.

Stepping out of the shower Ichigo walked back to his room, pyjamas in a loose bundle in one hand and the other swinging free, occasionally brushing the white towel around his waist. Opening his door and stepping into his room Ichigo quietly shut the door behind him, locking it to prevent any awkward moments by his father. Walking over to his chest of draws Ichigo rifled through them, pulling out a pair of boxers and a plain, grey shirt.

One of the lower draws Ichigo pulled out his school pants and school top, the jacket sat on a small hook on the back of his door. All together it usually took Ichigo about five minutes to get dressed, get his books together and walk down the stairs.

Expecting a attack from his father Ichigo pushed open the door to the living room and stepped through the doorway quickly "too slow my son" stepping to the side Ichigo watched as his father went flying past, rolling to a stop against the other wall. Quickly picking himself up again Isshin Kurosaki launched himself at his son in the usual 'father/son bonding fight' as he called it, only to meet Ichigo's fist with a crunch "I've…taught you well" when Isshin fell to the ground nobody seemed to notice, or care, as they all knew that he'd pick himself up quick enough anyway.

Sitting himself at the table Ichigo sighed, thanking his younger sister Yuzu when she handed him a bowl of rice. Eating on auto pilot Ichigo quickly finished breakfast and, taking his dishes to the kitchen, grabbed his bento. Giving Karin and Yuzu an affectionate ruffle of the hair, Ichigo placed his bento in his bag and waved goodbye to his family, walking out of the door and down the street.

Walking into the school next to Orihime Ichigo managed to feel almost normal, like the time spent as a shinigami was some sort of wondrous dream that he'd been woken from a lifetime too early "ohayō Kurosaki-kun, Inoue-chan" Uryuu and Chad greeted the strawberry as he and Orihime walked into their classroom

"Yo Ishida-kun, Chad-o"

"ohayō Ishida-kun, Chad-o" Orihime smiled widely as she walked toward two of her best friends, walking next to the boy she liked. Chad nodded in greeting and Uryuu pushed up his glasses

"Ichigo" Keigo launched himself at the strawberry

"Keigo" Ichigo let the enthusiastic, brown-haired teen's face land on his fist, knocking himself to the ground

"Ohayō, minna-san"

"yo" the Shoji-screen door slid closed once the teacher walked in. Ochi-Sensei had long, brown hair which was always tied back, Brown eyes, thin-rimmed glasses and always wore a red tracksuit to class

"Ohayō minna-san, " once she was at the front of the class only a few people had moved ", Come on sit down, " The teens started making their way to their seats and, once they were all sitting down she opens her book and calls the roll ", okay, so everyone's here? Very good, very good, " she still put a few marks in the book before snapping it shut ", this morning we have the pleasure of welcoming two new students to the class" walking to the door, Ochi-sensei slid it open and stood back, allowing two students to enter the room "please welcome them warmly"

"ohayō minna-san. I'm Kisaragi Yuffie. Hajimemashite" Yuffie bowed slightly to the class

"Yo. I'm Leonhart Leon. Hajimemashite" Leon just nodded to the class, hands in his pockets. Leon looked a little older than the rest of the class and Yuffie looked a little young but Ichigo knew not to judge people by appearance.

"welcome, please take any empty seat and try to catch up to us. We're studying Shakespeare at the moment"

Nodding, the two students took the empty seats behind Ichigo and to his right "ohayō"

"yo" Ichigo paid little attention during class, looking out the window as Ochi-sensei read from the book titled 'Romeo and Juliet', exceedingly bored.

During Phys ed it turned out that the class would be fighting with bokken. While the teacher explained what bokken were, for those who didn't understand, Ichigo noticed that the two new students were sitting a little way apart from the rest of the class, talking quietly to each other "alright, everybody grab a bokken, we'll be having two matches going at the same time, with the winners of each fight fighting each other. A championship match at the end of the class will decide the winner of this session" making his way over to the stands which were filled with bokken Ichigo picked a relatively long , heavy bokken and stepped back out of the mass of students, standing near the new students who had also already found their bokken. The girl, Yuffie, was complaining that she didn't like using swords "oh suck it up Yuffie. It won't hurt too much"

"Urusai" Yuffie turned away in a huff, crossing her arms in an irritated fashion

"alright, has everyone got a bokken?" murmured yes's came from the students, making Kagine-Sensei nod "okay then, lets start. I've had two squares marked on the filed and these will be your fighting ground. Pushing a person from this area or hitting some part of the body counts as a point and you'll need two points to win. These bokken have been pre-padded so no extra gear is needed. So who's going first?" no students came forward so, wanting to get this done, Ichigo stepped forward. At the same time the new girl stepped forward, the two looking at each other for a moment before nodding "alright, Kurosaki and Akanao in square one and, since no-one else has stepped forward, Asano and Leonhart in square two"

The battles were quick, passing in a blur for the orange-haired teen. After facing Akanao-san, Kimimura-san and Furugari-san Ichigo was declared the winner of the set and would be paired of with another of the ten winners for the second round. "Kurosaki and Tamakura in square one, Leonhart and Kisaragi in square two"

Tamakura Anaka was a tall boy with short black hair and bright green eyes, he was the second-in-command of the schools Kendo team and was actually rather good. Walking into the square Ichigo faced Tamakura, bowing to his opponent when Kagine-sensei blew the first short blast on the whistle, blocking Tamakura's attack just after the second blast.

Tamakura and Ichigo slowly made circles around the square, attacking each other and then quickly drawing back out of the others attack range. Ichigo quickly tired of this though and, blocking a side-sweeping hit from Tamakura, faked to the side before attacking his opponents unguarded left side. Tamakura brought his bokken around just in time to block the attack and, pushing Ichigo back a little, gave one of his own, hitting Ichigo on the shoulder "one point to Tamakura". The two moved back and forth around the square in a circular motion, a fast-paced clashing of their wooden bokken echoing around the field. Just as a cheer went up to signal the end of the fight between Leon and Yuffie, the signal for the first point having been given not soon before, Ichigo made a relentless stream of attacks on Tamakura, pushing him from the square "one point to Kurosaki Ichigo, Kumoro and Arisawa in square two now" Tamakura didn't give Ichigo an easy second point, becoming a lot less held-back in an attempt to thwart Ichigo gaining the second point needed to win the spar, though in this he made the mistake of becoming more open to attack and that is what gave Ichigo the upper hand. Ichigo, using Tamakura openness, gave an attack to the middle which was blocked but at the expense of Tamakura's chance, having stumbled out of the square "Match goes to Kurosaki. Arisawa and Forimo in square one, now" Ichigo sat and watched Tatsuki's spar with the black haired Forimo, seeing that she had the slight advantage, before turning to watch Leon fight with a brown-haired boy named Akima Masamotō. Though Masamotō was the captain of the Kendo team he was only just managing to hold Leon off, though the spar quickly ended with Leon as the victor.

"alright, for the semi-final game it'll be Kurosaki and Harubaki in square one and Leonhart and Arisawa in square two" Ichigo stood, giving Tatsuki a grin as she walked past and receiving a thumbs-up in return.

Harubaki was a guy of average size with short black hair and light blue eyes, pale skin and a slightly insane grin. The whistle blew for the opposition to bow and all four fighters did, rising and getting into a fighting stance before Kagine-sensei blew the whistle a second time, giving the signal for the fights to begin.

Harubaki didn't waste any time, lunging at Ichigo and putting him on the defensive. Though he tried to get past Ichigo's defensive the strawberries defense was seemingly perfect, with only openings that a shinigami or Espada could actually use because of the speed in which the appeared and disappeared again. Letting Harubaki swing himself out Ichigo waited patiently until Harubaki backed away to catch his breath before attacking, putting the other teen on the defensive. Ichigo had to hand it to the guy, his defensive was quite impressive. Having a strike to the side blocked Ichigo started hammering repetitively on the others bokken, pushing him slowly from the square. Giving a strike to the chest Ichigo successfully claimed his first point. Stepping back into his original position the two circled each other, more wary this time. Taking the first swing this time, Ichigo pushed against his bokken, forcing Harubaki back a few steps which he quickly regained. The cheering was blocked out by all four sparring teens, though some more successfully than others, Harubaki turned his head slightly when someone called his name to give him some advice and Ichigo used this small opening to score his second point on the teen "Second point to Kurosaki and point to Leonhart"

Ichigo and Harubaki bowed once again before departing the square to watch the fight between the new guy and Tatsuki Arisawa, the fighters still going strong with a one-all score. Tatsuki ducked a horizontal slash, slashing upward to try and claim her second point, but Leon blocked her counter-slash and pushed her back in a series of intense strikes, which she gave straight back.

The spar stayed in this fashion, the two trading and blocking blows, until the bell rung. As it did however Leon struck Tatsuki on the shoulder and claimed his second point "well done you two. Next lesson will be the final with Kurosaki and Leonhart fighting" when Kagine-sensei turned away the students took that as a signal to disperse, heading to the changing rooms.

Quickly getting changed, though not without the usual changing room noise, Ichigo left the changing rooms and walked across the sports field to where he could see Orihime and Tatsuki already sitting under a copse of trees with Ryo Kunieda, Mahana Natsui and Michiru Ogawa. Since the war Ichigo's relations with Ryo, Michiru and Mahana had improved though they still found him intimidating "konnichiwa, Kurosaki-kun"

"yo" Ichigo flopped onto the grass next to Tatsuki, dropping his bag next to him and pulling his bento and a carton of juice from the bag, watching as Uryū, Chad, Mizuiro and Keigo made their way across the field with the two new students.

Orihime smiled and waved as the group sat down "konnichiwa" Yuffie said to the group as she and Leon stood

"konnichiwa…ito…Kisaragi-san, Leonhart-san" Orihime smiled at the two new students, inviting them to sit-down "I'm Inoue Orihime"

Yuffie sat next to Orihime and started talking with Tatsuki, who asked her how she got so good at Kendo, while Leon sat nearer to Ichigo and Chad "yo, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo"

Leon nodded, pulling a bento from his bag "hey Ichigo, Mizuiro and I are going to the movies after school. Wanna come with?"

"Can't. There was a big accident on the corner and oyaji needs my help with a few guys who are too are too badly injured to move just yet"

"hmmm, you work in a hospital?" Leon looked at the orange-haired boy

"no, oyaji owns a medical clinic"

_That could explain it, the fact that his father owns a clinic, so often surrounded by pain and death, could be drawing the heartless to the boy_ Leon had one possible explanation to help Sora in his self-given mission to help the boy

"what about you two? What do your parents do?"

"well our parents are dead but we're living with some friends until we graduate" Yuffie had a slight smile, which turned into a huge grin "but the guys that we live with are one big, crazy family" Leon chuckled quietly to himself while Yuffie explained the outcome of the most recent 'family paint-ball match'

* * *

Sora's eyes opened slowly, earning himself another shake "come-on sleepy-head, wake up" Yuffie was shaking the vampire and, from the fact that she sounded particularly ecstatic, Sora knew that it couldn't be anything good and attempted to ignore the annoying shadow and return to sleep for a few more hours "no, you are not going back to sleep Sora, wake up now" Yuffie accentuated her words by stealing Sora's other pillow and smacking him with it repeatedly

"Yuffie…go away" Sora turned away from the annoying girl, curling his head under the blankets to protect it from the barrage of pillow hits

"no, now get up now or I'll go get Axel and he'll do it for me" when Yuffie got no response from Sora she sighed and retreated from the room, Sora could faintly hear her banging on another door and, after a few moments of conversation, a second set of footsteps joined Yuffie's light treads back to Sora's room.

Axel had, by the sound of it, grabbed something because, only a moment after Axel's footsteps stopped at the edge of Sora's bed, the sheets were pulled back, water was splashed on Sora's revealed skin and the sheets, which had also been splashed, were placed back over Sora's body. It took a moment for Sora's sleepy brain to process what happened but, just as the chill started to set I, the sheets went flying and Sora lunged at Axel from his bed, snagging him around the waist in a rugby-tackle style hold and they both went crashing to the ground.

When Axel was tacked he dropped the vase, which had been previously filled with water and flowers in the hall, and that was what Yuffie picked up while Sora had his hands wrapped around axels neck and shook the laughing, red-headed man "you. Asshole. What. The. Hell. Was. That. For?" with each word Sora gave Axel a shake but Axel couldn't answer because he was laughing so hard at the still dripping Sora

"Sora, " the vampire looked over his shoulder ", you gotta get ready"

"for?"

"we're going to the movies and we'll drag you along half naked if we have to"

Sora glanced out of the window and saw that it was getting dark already, though only just, and Sora knew from previous experience that Yuffie was serious about these sorts of things.

"fine" Sora got off Axel and walked to the attached bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Ten minutes later Sora came down the stairs, his hair still dripping slightly, followed by Yuffie and Axel. Walking into the kitchen Sora made his way for the mini-fridge, withdrawing his usual 'A' bag and a 'B' bag for Roxas, before taking a seat at the kitchen island and handing Roxas his bag.

Sora, dressed in a pair of slightly baggy black jeans, a plain white top with a yellow crown symbol on the chest, black sneakers and his usual black jacket, noted that everyone was dressed up in some way and wondered if everyone was being forced to go in some way or another.

Roxas, in a black jacket with a blue crown symbol in the same place as Sora's, navy top, grey sneakers and black skinny-jeans, wouldn't have had to have been persuaded too much.

Kairi, in a pinkish top with a star-shaped fruit attached to a palm tree on a tropical beach somewhere, a red jacket, grey skirt and red sneakers, and Naminé, in a white top with a blue sketchbook sitting on the right side of the shirt and small drawings all around it, blue skirt, white sandals and white jacket would have been likewise.

Axel, in grey jeans, red sneakers and a red hoodie with a flame just above the heart would want to get out of the house and have a reason to slack off just a little tonight.

Riku, in a grey jacket with a pair of wings on the back, a black work shirt with the two top button holes sown over, a pair of navy jeans and grey sneakers, would have been harder to persuade but, if anyone could do it, Yuffie could.

Cloud looked almost sullen in a tight, black vest-top, baggy black jeans, back sneakers and a grey jacket with a pair of wings on the chest.

Aerith, in a white top, a red and white skirt, tan boots and a pink jacket with a flower on the front pocket, looked exited as she handed a bag of 'AB negative' to Cloud.

Yuffie, in a black flower-printed top, tight navy jeans, a red-tinted grey jacket with a miniature of her four-pointed shuriken on the zipper and a pair of black boots only a little shorter than her black knee-height socks, her headband wrapped firmly around her head, had smiles enough for everyone and then some.

Leon was sitting across from Sora in a pair of black skinny jeans, a grey shirt, a dark grey jacket with a pair of red wings on the shoulders and a pair of black combat boots.

"come on people, we've got to go soon" Yuffie was getting impatient, having already finished her light dinner and waiting for the others to do the same. Sora, taking the empty bags from both Roxas and Cloud, dumped all three in the trash and washed his hands. Aerith was just standing, bringing a stack of bowls with her to the sink, and after running water into the bowls to give them a wash she grabbed two sets of keys

"shall we go then?"

"sounds like a plan" Yuffie grinned and pumped her hand into the air, disappearing in a sudden splash of darkness.

Aerith threw a set of keys to Sora, the kingdom key was prominent on the keychain, and a set to Leon, the miniature of the Gunblade was Leon's chosen keychain, before walking out the door, the others following close behind.

Aerith lead the group to the cavernous garage "man, this place is huge" Yuffie's voice echoed around the open space from her position leaning against one of the columns holding the roof up

"well this place is designed to hold at least a eighty more people. It kinda has to be" said Axel as he walked over to Sora's black all-terrain car

Yuffie was silent for a moment before another question bubbled up, Leon answered the question as he unlocked his own car, Sora heard neither side of the conversation that ensued because he had already started the car. Roxas was sitting next to him, Axel was sitting behind the drivers seat and Riku was sitting next to him. There were two seats in what would usually be considered the boot, facing each other instead of being parallel to each other like the other seats, and Kairi shared these two back seats with Naminé. Pulling out of the parking spot Sora expertly guided the car out of the garage and down the road that was carved into the sloping side of the cliff, slowing when he passed the 'Rock-slide ahead' sign, which he guessed Yuffie had moved when she disappeared not long before, Sora waited at the bottom of the hill for Leon's car to pass them before he pulled back onto the road, letting the fresh evening air flood through the open window.

Even though they were blatantly pushing past the speed-limit neither car was stopped on their way to town. The road was paved just before the cliff started and no-one, not even daring and stupid teenagers looking for a thrill, went past that point. The houses were kept far from the side of the imposing cliff and the house on top, the school-trips that came into this part of the town never strayed close to the hill and it was said that the house and it's grounds were haunted by all manner of horrible things. Oh how right they were. Sora chuckled, as he did every time he remembered starting those ridiculous rumors, keeping them going through the centuries and bringing the old stories back to the front of peoples minds when someone trespassed upon the lands.

Getting closer to the main city now both cars slowed down, sitting comfortably under the limit as the pulled into the evening traffic heading into the Old Karakura district. Crossing the Karasu River the two cars pulled into the outer areas of Old Karakura, Sora following Leon as he pulled into a car park across from the movie theater.

Paying for the tickets to enter the car park, Sora waited until everyone was out of the car and were walking out of the car park before pulling down his hood and grinning cheekily at Roxas.

It was a in-going bet between the two, how many times could they escape being pulled over every century for 'underage driving'. So far Sora was winning, having only been caught once.

Walking across the road the first thing Sora spotted was a mop of spiky, orange hair "Kurosaki-kun" Yuffie called, waving happily as the strawberry turned to face the group, his mouth dropping at the sheer size of the group "I thought you couldn't make it?"

Ichigo shrugged, rubbing the back of his head "oyaji had stabilized a few of the patients enough to be transferred to the hospital this morning and let me leave early" it was obvious that Ichigo hadn't seen Sora, who was almost at the back of the group

"well I'm glad" Yuffie smiled, glancing at her watch "shall we go in? it's going to start soon" since Ichigo and his friends had pre-booked their tickets, they bought their movie snacks while Sora paid for ten tickets and Riku paid for snacks. It was only once seating arrangements had been decided upon that Sora realized that he was sitting next to Ichigo

"what the-…" _and so it begins_

* * *

Max - *In another room* Hope that you like this as much as the previous chapter.

Sora - *Grins and reads over the chapter script* This was a fun chapter

Max - Yes it was *grins*

Sora - Should we let him out now? *glancing at the door*

Max - Getting anxious?

Sora - *Flushes and turns away* No

Max - *Laughs* okay, sorry. Want to hear a random fact that I learned the other day?

Sora - Okay…*glancing at Max*

Max - Did you know that Mizuiro actually means 'Sky Blue'?

Sora - Seriously?

Max - *nods* okay, here are the explanations for this chapter and please review, you know you want to save Ichi-kun from the dreaded 'Mr. Slinky'

Sora - *Confused* Just what is 'Mr. Slinky'?

Max - It's a concept I'm using in another story of mine…

Okay, Some points to clear up.

**NightStalkers -** A story by Tiana Misoro. The story is centred around a bar for vampires and, although I will be making some minor changes to the concept, it'll have a actual appearance in the story soon. If you haven't read it then I suggest you do.

**Aerith, Cloud, Yuffie and Leon - **I figured that, since Sora gets on so well with these guys, I may as well put them in the story too. There will be other appearances, including a few not specifically from the KH series to my knowledge (I've only played 1 and 2 wit trailers, stories, wikis and such on the others) that I can't resist putting in.

**Ichigo's Flashback - **For flashbacks, just a warning here, I'll be putting the flashbacks in a first-person's point of view.

**Yuffie and Leon at Karakura Central High - **I was trying to figure out who I should put at the high school and I figured that, between Yuffie and Leon (mostly Yuffie), those two could get into some serious situations later on down the track.

**Studying Shakespeare -** I'm doing Shakespeare at school at the moment and all I can say is this. Though it's a good movie the Leonardo De'Caprio version of Romeo and Juliet is SO weird…they talk like they do in the books but blow up / set fire to a petrol station and have a gun fight / car chase within the first five minutes or so…

**Bokken - **for those of you who don't know here's a explanation. A bokken (, bok(u), "wood", and ken, "sword") (or commonly as bokutō in Japan), is a Japanese wooden sword used for training, usually the size and shape of a katana, but sometimes shaped like other swords, such as the wakizashi and tantō. Some ornamental bokken are decorated with mother-of-pearl work and elaborate carvings.

**Blood-type preferences -** Each vamp in the story has a personal preference of what blood-type they drink the most. Roxas likes 'B', Sora likes 'A' and Cloud prefers 'AB'. 'A' and 'O' being the most common, then 'B' is more rare, then 'AB' as the most rare of all blood-types.

**Cars -** All of the people living in the mansion have a car but they usually car-pool with one person or another when going into town during the day, just jumping from the cliff if they're a vampire.


	3. Confrontations and Pissy Shinigami

Max - Yo

Sora - *Waves*

Ichigo - *Still tied up*

Sora - Why is Ichigo still tied up?

Max - Because no-one reviewed

Max & Sora - *Can hear Ichigo screaming*

Sora - *Walks to the door* Just what the hell are you doing to him?

Max - *Grabs Sora's shoulder and pulls him back* I may or may not have given his hollow large amounts of coffee

Sora - *Pales* You're horrible

Max - *Shakes her head* Nope. Disclaimer if you please

Sora - Max doesn't own Bleach or Kingdom Hearts, doesn't make any money from this story and does this only for her own amusement.

* * *

"_well I'm glad" Yuffie smiled, glancing at her watch "shall we go in? it's going to start soon" since Ichigo and his friends had pre-booked their tickets, they bought their movie snacks while Sora paid for ten tickets and Riku paid for snacks. It was only once seating arrangements had been decided upon that Sora realized that he was sitting next to Ichigo_

"_what the-…" _and so it begins

* * *

Ichigo had to wait until the movie was finished before he could question Sora and Sora could feel him fidgeting in the seat next to him, making his frustrations known to the vampire. The second Sora had seen the strawberry he knew why Yuffie had been so pushy about him coming and, though it was a good movie, Sora would have rather been out roof jumping or even doing his rounds, anything other than being in this crowded, hot and subtly stinking movie theatre.

Once the movie ended Sora was the first out of the door, walking across the foyer and pushing open the door, taking a deep breath of cool air once he was outside "Tatsumaki-kun, Daijoubu?"

Turning quickly Sora saw the ginger-haired girl standing behind him "hai, daijoubu" giving her a small smile, Sora glanced past her to see the rest of the rather large, loud group exit the theatre

"Orihime, Tatsumaki-kun are you coming?"

"hmm?, oh coming Tatsuki" the group made it's way down the street and to a small park nearby, sitting on the field to talk or having rather loud arguments between each other.

It seemed that the spiritually aware humans got on well with the slightly larger group of vampires and other such beings, Sora noted as much as he watched Yuffie and Keigo argue about something that had happened at school that afternoon.

Sighing, Sora lay back on the slightly browned grass, has arms crossed behind his head for use as a pillow as he watched the sky slowly darken from a dark purple to a Navy colour pricked every so often by a star or a satellite. Hearing a set of footsteps nearing him from somewhere near his feet, Sora waited until he actually saw the fiery red spikes of Ichigo's hair before he truly readied himself for the new round of questions. Ichigo, dressed in a greenish-grey tank top, grey cargos and a black leather jacket, looked at the sky same as Sora, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jacket "so what're you doing here?" the question was quiet and it was obvious from his expression that it wasn't thought out before it was asked

"am I not allowed to lay on a soccer field?"

"I thought vampires didn't go out in sunlight" Ichigo sat next to the vampire, noticing that the boys eyes gave off a faint blue luminescence in the bright moon-light

"It's not day though" Sora looked at the strawberry, who was scowling appropriately at his nit-picking

"but it would have been when you left"

"and how would you know?"

"Yuffie said that you live on the outskirts"

"that's true" Sora grinned, looking at the moon as he did so "but we're notorious speeders"

"oh, life not fast enough for you?" Sora sat up and looked at the teen infront of him, chuckling quietly

"nope. When you live as long as we do life gets rather dull sometimes" Ichigo chuckled, nodding slightly

"yeah. I guess it would"

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a while, watching the scene Keigo was making. It was almost eleven o'clock before the teens decided to call it a night "oi, Ichigo, " the girl with the spiky hair, Arisawa-san, called as she stood up, brushing any stray grass from her jeans ", we're going to go no. are you coming?"

Ichigo nodded and stood up himself, stretching out his stiff muscles "yeah, I probably should if I'm going to have any chance tomorrow" Sora stood as Ichigo waved to the group, walking in the opposite direction from the others

"hey Kairi, could you take the car back? I'm going to start my rounds"

"alright" Kairi proffered a hand to her sister, who took the hand with a smile and a glance in Sora's direction, though it didn't really do much as Sora had already disappeared.

Jumping from roof to roof Sora saw Ichigo walking along a street and heading in a different direction from the pace from the night before.

Deciding to hang back and watch from the shadows, Sora jumped from roof to roof as quietly as he could, interested in where the strawberry was heading. Watching from a roof across the street as Ichigo paused for a second before turning right and heading down a thin, dark alley, Sora saw three people slip form the shadows around the alley.

They wore all black clothes and , jumping easily from the roof, Sora pulled himself into a easy, relaxed step as he neared the alley, only pausing with wide eyes at the entrance to the gloom _oh, shit_

* * *

Taking a shortcut through the alley was the usual for Ichigo, his house was just a block away after all, though he had never attempted it this late at night.

Pulling his jacket closer around him Ichigo could defiantly feel more than one set of eyes watching him from the darkness as he stood at the edge of the alley, looking around for any signs of another person. Finding none Ichigo took one last glance around as he stepped into the gloomy alley and walked quickly down it's length, speeding up marginally when he heard more sets of footsteps behind him. Looking over his shoulder Ichigo saw three people, dressed in black and excluding the same aura of fear and pain that Sora and his brother did the night before.

_V__ampires._

Breaking into a run, Ichigo skidded to a halt only a few steps later as three more vampires entered the alleyway and effectively blocked his escape route as they advanced at the same, slow pace as the other three "now, now. Where do you think you're going?"

"well I thought I was going home-…" the vampire standing in the middle of the second group laughed, cutting Ichigo off

"not gonna happen, " with a snap of his long, slender digits two of the three vampires behind Ichigo gripped his arms and held him tightly while the third came around to Ichigo's front, punching him in the stomach "you see, my master wants you and we're here to make sure that happens" the vampire, obviously the leader of the group, stepped forward and grabbed Ichigo's chin, the strawberry having crumpled after only the first punch which, to the credit of his attackers, felt like what he imagined being hit byHihiō Zabimaru at full-bull would have felt like while still in his body.

"che, go to hell" pulling his chin from the vampires grasp Ichigo was attempting to pull his arms free from their tight grip to get a punch at the guy but crumpled to the ground instead, the grips of his captors disappearing with two strangled yelps. Pulling himself up, Ichigo got to see another silhouette standing over the two crumpled vampires before he went back down just as quickly, his head smacking against the brick wall as a extremely powerful kick to the ribs sent him flying "now, now Tatsumaki-san, " Ichigo felt a strong hand grip his arm and pull him up at an angle that almost popped his shoulder from it's socket, making him cry out in pain ", you don't want to see him be hurt, do you?" snapping his fingers once again the two other more reluctant, vampires jumped past their leader and his hostage. Ichigo watched, first in apprehension then in awe, as Sora dropped the first with relative ease but only managed to do the same with the other after a knife was stabbed into his waist. As the second vampire fell to the ground Sora pulled the blade from his mid-section with a hiss of pain, the wet squelch of the blade being pulled out of it's fleshy sheath made Ichigo wince

"now, you should let him go and wait quietly for your demise"

"not going to happen. By the rate of blood loss I'd say you've fed recently and, because of that, you're going to die soon" the smirk that the un-named vampire gave Sora was short-lived, turning into a pale frown as the older vampire muttered a single, horrible word.

"fire" flames immediately enveloped his hand, which was held out towards Ichigo and his captor "now I suggest you let Ichigo go and step back quietly" the other vampire decided to do something else, holding Ichigo tighter to his chest

"I think not, " this sentence was accompanied by the foolish movement of lowering his head to Ichigo's exposed, tanned neck "Mmmm, smells lovely" Ichigo, realizing that he was in the immediate danger of being bitten began to struggle, adrenaline erasing the pain from his injuries enough to let him get a elbow into the vampires stomach.

Vampires, as a whole, are relatively hardy, being able to survive things that would kill anyone else and only getting more kill-proof as they get older, but it seemed that this vampire wasn't very old yet, it was apparent in the way that he stumbled away from the surprise attack to his torso.

Ichigo, on the other hand, was a different story. Crumpling to the ground once again as his attacker released him, he could only watch trough slightly hazy eyes as Sora sent the fiery spell at his attacker.

Rolling onto his back with a grunt of pain, the strawberry watched as Sora walked over to the other vampire, standing over him with a sad yet angered look "you won't always be there to protect the boy. We will get him in the end"

Blood was gurgling from the side of his mouth and his shirt was burned right away, revealing the deep, angry, bleeding burn wound

"you can't really believe that" blood was starting to drip through Sora's fingers, Ichigo could hear the drops falling to the pavement and the metallic smell was sitting at the back of his throat in the most horrible way.

"we will get him eventually, " it was obvious to both boys that the last of the attacking vampires was almost dead, his eyes were starting to glaze over and he looked very pale, even in the gloom of the alley "You will all…die"

Ichigo closed his eyes when the vampire passed away, trying not to move his chest to much as he sucked in short but even breaths. He hadn't felt this weak in a long time, the last time being when Rukia was taken to the Seireitei for her execution, and Ichigo didn't like the feeling at all. He used the wall to steady himself as he slowly made his way into a relatively straight position, a glance at Sora told the strawberry that his vampire protector wasn't doing so well. Sora was pale and clutched at his bleeding side, applying pressure to the wound.

Ignoring his own wounds for the time being, though they protested a lot at that, Ichigo walked the few steps to Sora and grabbed his wrist gently, pulling him slowly from the alley and down the street. Blood-drops followed the shocked vampire as they made their way down the street, Sora holding Ichigo up as the strawberry pulled the key from his pocket and slid it into the lock.

On the first story was the small kitchen, filled with modern appliances, an archway separating the dining room and the living room. The living room had a good-size TV, two cream couches and a wooden table, Ichigo passed through the kitchen on his way up, grabbing the first-aid kit from the floor-niche in the hot-water closet.

Walking upstairs with the first-aid box in one hand and Sora leaning against his other side, holding his jacket to the wound in his side, Ichigo opened the first door on the left entered the master bedroom, steering Sora towards the bathroom.

Sitting Sora on the edge of the pristine tub, Ichigo helped the vampire peel away his bloody shirt, despite the vampires assurances that he would be fine, and grabbed a washcloth from the draw under the sink.

Dipping the washcloth in the warm water now running from the tap Ichigo dabbed it gently to the wound, revealing the cut underneath the caked layer of just drying blood. It was a clean cut, small and it had no ragged edges.

Ichigo covered the gash in a sealing paste, similar to the one Ikkaku used in the end of Hōzukimaru, before wrapping it in gauze and a layer of bandage "thanks"

"no problem" standing up slowly with Sora's shirt and jacket in hand Ichigo washed the blood from his hands and from the washcloth before he turned off the tap.

"what about your injuries?" Sora stood up, wincing slightly as the wound stretched. Ichigo was pulling off his jersey, placing that along with Sora's top and jacket, in the wash

"I'll be -…" Sora poked at a blackening bruise on Ichigo's hip, making the strawberry wince and move away from the source of the pain

"no, you won't" grabbing the strawberry's wrist, Sora snagged a small jar of Anti-Flamme ™ and a few rolls of bandage from the first-aid kit as he walked past "now shut it, take your shirt of and sit down" Sora kneeled on the bed, behind Ichigo.

Starting with the bruising on Ichigo's shoulder Sora moved slowly around to the strawberry's front, making sure to rub the cream into the bruising as lightly as he could so that he didn't cause Ichigo more pain than necessary.

It was when Sora was treating the wounds on Ichigo's stomach that the vampire realised just how well muscled the teen infront of him was. His chest and torso were very well defined, it surprised the vampire though he knew it shouldn't have. After all, shinigami are always buff.

Having dealt with everything except Ichigo's face the vampire glanced at the wounds, dirty, open cuts on his forehead and cheek, before standing up and walking back into the bathroom, grabbing the still damp washcloth and the jar of sealing ointment. Sitting back down on the bed next to the strawberry Sora was slightly relieved to see that Ichigo had put on a clean, loose shirt.

Wiping the damp washcloth over the cut on Ichigo's cheek Sora paused when his patient winced, flinching away from the motion "sorry" a muttered apology from Sora as he applied the cloth once again, though he was gentler about it now.

Letting Ichigo wash his clothes, his blood having dripped all the way down the right side of his pants as well, Sora took the clothes that Ichigo offered to him, even though they were way to big, and waited, in what could almost be seen as an impatient manner, for his clothes to get washed. In the mean-time he was stuck playing twenty questions with Ichigo

"so who were those guys?" it was currently around one in the morning, cleaning up after the brawl had taken longer than expected, and Ichigo sat across the sofa from Sora with a mug of coffee in his hands

"well I'd say that they were form the Organization"

"the organisation?" Ichigo let one eyebrow rise sceptically

"yeah, Organization Thirteen, " Sora sipped his coffee half-heartedly, thinking ", Organization Thirteen are a group of vampires that want to control the world, much like Aizen in that way, and they have the means and power to do so as well"

"so did Aizen…wait, how do you know about that anyway?"

"you told me about it. And, even though Aizen was powerful and had the Espada and the hollows on his side, he was too obsessed with becoming god and wiping out the Shinigami to stand a chance. The Organization are cold, ruthless vampires who kill indiscriminately and aren't hindered at all by time and embrace the darkness to a larger extent than Aizen did…"

"So this organisation of yours controls the heartless?"

"yes, and nobodies, about half the vampire population and even has some allies in the Seireitei…or so we believe" sipping at his coffee slowly

"Nani? You mean that the Seireitei could be facing another group of traitors so soon after the war?" Ichigo sat up but leaned back down against the armrest, wincing unhappily

"no, it would take something major in the Organization for them to give any order to their potential Shinigami associates that even hinted at them leaving" Sora stressed the word potential, gazing at the half-cup of coffee that he held

"you seem to now an awful lot about their methods…" Ichigo's implications weren't missed by the vampire, who's fingers tightened ever so slightly around the mug

"we've got a…history" it was obvious that the strawberry wanted him to explain the statement but Sora paid him no attention, refusing to let those memories surface while in the presence of the teen. It was not something that he needed to see.

Thankfully it seemed that Ichigo picked up on the vampires reluctance to talk about his 'history' with the Organisation, letting the conversation slip into other subjects until the washing was finished.

At around three in the morning, long after the washing had finished and the dryer had stopped, Sora left Ichigo's house. The vampire was very pale and, though he said that he'd be fine by tomorrow night, Ichigo couldn't help but worry about Sora as he fell into a weary, uncomfortable sleep

* * *

The next evening, when Sora came down the stairs for something to eat before he started his rounds, he could faintly hear Leon swearing from his room. Sora raced down the stairs to the second floor and, running down the hall, jumped over the banister for the stairs between floors one and two, hurrying into the kitchen to see what had Leon so wound up.

Skidding to a stop just infront of the doorframe Sora glanced around the room before letting his eyes land on Leon, who was now being yelled at by Kairi "what happened? I could hear him swearing from my room"

"Shinigami showed up in Karakura today" Yuffie's expression was serious "they could 'sense' the vampire on us and now they're all suspicious of us"

"all? Just how many are there?" Sora leant against the doorframe, his arms crossed infront of his chest and a frown knotting his brows together

"six. One Taichō, two Fuku-Taichō's and three seated officers, " Yuffie got off her stool and walked over to Sora, leaning on the opposite side of the doorframe ", Ichigo didn't seem to happy to see any of them, something about them leaving him in the dark for a year and a half. Sora, was Ichigo involved in the war?"

"Yeah, from what he told me he was a shinigami Daikō for just over a year. Apparently he had to give up his Spiritual awareness and shinigami powers to finish the war"

"the strawberry beat Aizen? That'd explain a lot" Leon muttered, rubbing the back of his head "beaten up by the organization and he still gave me hell"

Chuckling quietly Sora glanced out the kitchen window, seeing Cloud waiting near the entrance to the drive "what's Cloud waiting for?"

"I think you mean who. The rest of our group is coming tonight and it seems they picked up Donald and Goofy on the way here" Leon said, passing through the doorway and heading down the hall, opening the front door and walking over to where could was standing. Grinning giddily Sora walked out of the house, watching as a pair of cars made their way quickly from the main lights of Karakura town, slowing a little once they made it to the base of the hill.

By the time the two cars, both black or dark blue, pulled up outside the house the others had made their way outside and were standing in groups around the garden, waiting in excitement for their friends to arrive. Sora, who was making his way to the second car, was almost brained by the door of the first car as it was thrown open, a quick leap to the side saving him from injury "Sora"

Being glomped from behind Sora grinned, knowing the oddly-pitched voice anywhere "Donald"

Standing up, having landed in a crouch after almost being brained by the door, Sora was knocked off his feet once again by a second man "Goofy" Laughing, Sora took the proffered hand, letting his lanky friend pull him up.

Looking around Sora saw a group, the word 'mob' came to mind, of people who were standing around the cars and talking happily amongst each other.

Leaping from building to building, Axel and following closely behind him, Sora made his way around his rounds. Because of the appearance of the shinigami in Karakura, a inconvenience but one that they had worked around before, the rounds went from a single person to groups of two or three for more of an advantage in battle should they meet a shinigami.

It was actually when the two vampires walked past the corner of Ichigo's street that they ran into trouble, three shinigami appearing from the gloom to surround Sora and Axel "what do you want here?"

Standing in the middle of a three-way intersection with a sword being pointed at you from each direction wasn't how Sora pictured this conversation would go, his version was a bit more bloody, and he hoped that it would stay that way as he looked over his shoulder at Axel. Standing infront of Sora was a short boy with white hair and teal eyes and infront of Axel, who had turned and was now standing back-to-back with Sora, was a girl with long, strawberry-blond hair and the largest, most revealing bust he'd ever seen on a woman _I bet she could do some serious damage with those…assets alone. She could probably suffocate someone with those…_

Standing guard of the street that Ichigo's apartment was on, was a short girl with black hair and eyes that looked almost completely black in the half-light. All three were scowling and all three had their swords drawn, Sora knew that they wouldn't hesitate to cut them down without mercy "I'll ask again, what do you want here" the shortest female asked, her grip tightening ever so slightly on her sword.

"we're just doing our job, " Axel muttered, scowling ", can't you shinigami just back off?"

"and what, may I ask, is this job that you have to do?" the short guy in the white Haori spoke this time, in Sora's knowledge this meant that he was a captain and not someone to take lightly

"To protect Karakura town, same as you, so if you'll kindly move out of the way then we can get on with it and be on our way" Sora didn't mean to sound so patronizing, usually he was quite honest in his tone when talking to people he'd never met, but with shinigami it just came out that way. Especially after the particular things they'd done in the past to both himself and his family, blood related or otherwise.

"I'm afraid I can't do that. Vampires are too dangerous to be allowed to run free and attack innocent people"

"Taichō, are you saying those attacks were caused by…" the busty woman was silenced by a glare from the boy, who stepped forward and placed the tip of his sword at the base of Sora's neck

"you are now under arrest until further questioning can be-…" The short Taichō was cut off when a door slammed against a wall as it was opened, a very angry Ichigo storming out onto the street followed by another man, his red hair tied up in a way that made it look like the leaves of a pineapple "Ichigo, get back here" grabbing Ichigo's arm the red-head was pushed back by a punch in the nose from the strawberry, a scowl gracing his features as he whirled around and started to yell at the other man "no, Renji, you stop. I know you think you're protecting me from them but just back off" the man, Renji, had stumbled back but gripped Ichigo's arm once again when the teen started back down the street, dodging the second punch aimed at him and pulling Ichigo's arm hard behind his back

"Renji, get Ichigo out of here. Tie him up if you have to but don't let him outside again" The shortest girl said, whirling around to face the two red-heads.

Ichigo looked up at Sora, a sad and defeated look that got a small growl from Sora as Renji lead the strawberry back towards his house, his arm still held tightly behind his back "Sora, don't-…" Axel didn't get to finish his sentence however, Sora had disappeared from behind Axel, reappearing a moment later behind the red-headed shinigami.

Renji turned quickly, releasing Ichigo and pushing him away in order to free his hands so he could protect himself from the kick to the chest that Sora gave, sending him flying down the street "you're coming with me" Axel appeared next to Sora, pulling out a slick, black phone and flicking it open, typing in a number and holding it to his ear.

"Yuffie, get here now" not giving the Shadow girl a chance to answer, or to yell at him, Axel snapped the phone shut.

Sora, glancing down the street, saw that the three shinigami had been caught in a Stop-net while the red-head, Renji, had been hit with a bind spell

"Just what did you-…" Ichigo, fighting Sora's grip on his arm, was tapped on the top of the head by Axel, who had muttered 'stop' at the same time. This caused the teen to pause in time, mid rant, with one hand on Sora's arm in a vain attempt to remove the grip Sora had on him and a look of anger and concentration on his face, a stark change from the sadness and defeat from a moment before.

* * *

Ichigo was quite pissed of about the whole ordeal and standing, frozen like the others, he was seething. Punching Renji had felt good, it had helped Ichigo get rid of some of his anger towards the shinigami and the fact that they just left him after his powers disappeared, but being frozen as he was now wasn't helping with anything.

He was now standing, waiting, with Sora and his red-headed friend in an alley just off the street, the same alley in which he had his encounter with vampires the night before. He cold see Renji struggling, he seemed to be stuck in some sort of invisible trap _Kidō maybe…?_

Guessing that Tōshirō, Rukia and Matsumoto were stuck in the same sort of trap as he and Renji, not being able to see them in their shinigami forms Ichigo could only guess, Ichigo was concentrating on getting out of his bindings when a third figure walked out of the shadows. Scratch that, it looked like the third person walked out of the wall its self.

Peering closer at the person, who had it's back turned to the three, Ichigo got a large shock when it turned out that it was Kisaragi Yuffie. Yuffie seemed pissed, her hands were on her hips and Ichigo could see her scowl in the gloom of the alley "what the hell happened here?" her tone was angry and, even though both boys were taller than her they both leaned back, something Ichigo could both feel and see.

Glancing in Renji's direction Ichigo could see that he was starting to move forward, he was doing quite well until he lost his balance and face-planted and, hoping that the same was happening for him, resumed his struggling.

It wasn't much, his body was sluggish and it felt like his limbs were made of lead, but he did manage to struggle once again, his movements gradually becoming faster and easier as he attempted to pull away from Sora, the grip on his arm became tighter "not now Yuffie, ill explain it all later but please just get us out of here" Sora's tone was pleading, almost desperate, and after one last, hard look from Yuffie she sighed and grabbed both boys by the arm.

Darkness appeared around Ichigo and, before he disappeared completely, he heard Renji calling his name, running towards the alley

They appeared moment later in a rather lavish living-room and Ichigo, glad to find that he had his full mobility back, pulled his arm from Sora's slacking grip and right into the second man with the spiky red hair and, upon closer inspection it was revealed that he had a small, purple reverse-teardrop shaped marking under each bright emerald colored eye.

At the entrance of the four a second group walked through the door that lead to what looked like a hallway. The only person Ichigo knew was Leon, who lead the group "Kurosaki..." Leon's eyes widened slightly when he spotted Ichigo, who looked like he was about to snap "Sora, Axel, what is he doing here" _so his name is Axel…?_ Ichigo thought as he glanced at the red-head, Axel, out of the corner of his eye

"it's a very long story-…" Sora was cut off by a loud crashing. Sighing, Ichigo watched as one of the girls stepped forward

"hello, Ichigo. My name is Kairi, " Kairi was of average height with shoulder length, dark red hair and Violet-blue eyes. Now that the adrenaline was fading from his system Ichigo started to feel a stinging sensation on his right arm and, looking down, saw that he had angry looking, red scratches down his arm "that looks nasty. Let's get it cleaned up"

"bu-…" Ichigo started to protest but Kairi obviously didn't want to hear any of it, grabbing Ichigo's left wrist and pulling him out of the room and down the hallway.

Kairi pulled Ichigo down the hall, avoiding the stairway and continuing down the hall, pushing open the third doorway on the right to reveal a bathroom. Closing the door behind Ichigo she told him to sit on the edge of the tub, she kneeled down t get a first-aid kit from under the sink. Kneeling on Ichigo's right side Kairi rummages around in the first aid kit for a moment before pulling out a pair of tweezers, with a vaguely triumphant expression, and begins to pull pieces of gravel from the scratches on Ichigo's palm.

"why…?"

"hmmm?" Kairi didn't look up from her intense scrutiny of Ichigo's palm, pulling out a large, sharp piece of rock with a quick flick of the wrist which caused the wound to start bleeding

"Why did they react so badly to each other?" Glancing up at Ichigo's face Kairi saw that he had a pained, far-away look in his eyes

"vampires, any of us actually, have very bad relations with shinigami. We always have and we probably always will" Kairi's voice was low and Ichigo could tell that she was choosing her words carefully, not giving away any information that she didn't want him to know "Shinigami have never been very sympathetic with our kinds. They think that we're a mutation, a virus maybe, that has been affecting the population of the earth for millennia and have tried to wipe us out multiple times"

Ichigo's eyes widened and he looked down, away from Kairi "they told me that a hollow was nearby. The only reason that I knew any different was because I saw Sora and Axel through window" Kairi, having worked quickly throughout he conversation, was now working on the last scrape, a long, dirty gash that ran down almost the whole length of Ichigo's arm. Pulling pieces of gravel from the bottom of the scratch Kairi sighed "I'm not saying that their reasons were right and I'm not saying that I approve of their actions, Sora and Axels actions or the Shinigami's, but they are your friends. Right?"

"…I guess" it took a moment for Ichigo to answer. In all honesty he wasn't sure if they really were his friends, friends don't lie to each other and they defiantly broke that rule

"they were probably trying to protect you from the perceived danger, " Kairi, feeling Ichigo's gaze on her, glanced up at the boy. His eyebrow was raised, his question obvious ", I'm not saying I agree with what they did, though both sides over-reacted I'm sure, but I don't like to see friends fighting…I've been mending feuds between everyone for so long I do it on impulse now" a small chuckle escaped her lips as Kairi wrapped a bandage around Ichigo's arm and put the tweezers down next to the bloody wash cloth that sat on the side of the tub.

Ichigo waited until Kairi had finished packing the medical equipment back away before following her out of the bathroom and back down the hall, sighing in defeat when the living-room was revealed to be empty. Hearing Kairi sigh Ichigo looked at her "Sora's room is the third door on the left side of the third floor. If you want your questions answered you better hurry, he gets irritable when he's tired" when Ichigo's eyebrow once again rose she just smiled and walked away, pushing open a door which lead to a room full of light and sound, leaving Ichigo alone in the gradually lightening hallway. Looking up the staircase Ichigo gave himself a small shrug and started up the stairs, the thick cream carpeting muffled his footsteps.

The second floor was only a relatively short, dark hallway with a total of two doors appearing before the hallway ended only a few meters from the staircase. Quickly trashing the idea of having a look through the doors on this floor Ichigo started up the next flight of stairs, quickly coming across the third dark hallway he had seen in around the same number of minutes. This hallway was quite long, the doors were surprisingly far apart , the fact that there was hardly any light despite the impending dawn made the hallway seem even longer than it actually was "damn freaky hallways" Ichigo muttered to himself, stopping outside the third door on the left. He was preparing to knock when he herd Sora call out from the other side of the door

"Ichigo, if you're gonna come in then just do it already" turning the doorknob and letting the door swing open Ichigo stepped into the room and grabbed the edge of the door, shutting it behind him.

Sora's room had dark blue walls with black curtains and a king-size bed with black and blue covers, the far wall was covered in an almost full bookshelf and a desk sat in the corner near the door, a radio sat in the corner playing music quietly through the speaker system that Ichigo could see was set up. Sora stood at the foot of his bed dressed only in a pair of black slacks and a surprisingly tight, light-blue singlet. Ichigo couldn't see Sora's expression as the vampire was facing away from him, his arms crossed, but Ichigo could see that he was tense.

"Sora, what the hell happened back there?" the first question that came to Ichigo's mind wasn't the best one, he knew that, but it would defiantly get the conversation started. Possibly even get more than the intended answers.

"which part?" he sounded almost disinterested

"all of it. One minute everything is fine then everyone goes crazy"

"that is the Shinigami's problem, not mine"

"Does this have anything to do with the 'history' that you keep hinting at?, " His conscience was yelling at him not to go there but Ichigo, having been able to deal with the consequences of this before, ignored the little voice and went there anyway "Kairi told me about what the Shinigami did to vampires and what they think of you"

Sora turned around, his blue eyes blazing as he stormed towards Ichigo, the younger man held captive by the vampires fiery eyes "you have no idea what they did. You think you do but we simplify the facts and make sure we say the least gruesome one because we know that you're friends with those things"

"with those things, " Ichigo's laugh was cold, it surprised him and it looked like it surprised Sora as well, the vampire taking a half-step back ", that's actually kind of funny coming from you. You're more alike than you think you know, you're both so easy to piss off, you both keep secrets like it's going out of fashion or something" Ichigo flinched as Sora grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down so that he was level with the shorter man's eyes which were, once again, burning with anger.

"you want the facts? Alright, fine, " Sora released Ichigo's shirt and pushed him back, letting the strawberry stumble backwards into the door ", before about fifty years ago Shinigami tortured any vampire they found to attempt to get a confession of killing someone so that they could execute them for that killing. If they didn't do anything branded the vampire and released them, executing the vampire on the spot if it was found a second time. Even if it was just walking down the street. In 1793 the Seireitei launched an attack on the major vampire groups of the world and almost wiped us out, " by the end of that Sora was yelling and Ichigo looked rather pale ", this is all because of the guys in organization thirteen"

"they wouldn't do that though…" Ichigo said, shaking his head. Sora chuckled coldly

"this is why we didn't tell you the full, gory facts. You're so tuck in denial that it's just not worth it" Sora muttered as he turned away. Ichigo stepped forward and grabbed his shoulder, causing Sora to look over his shoulder

"why should I believe you?" Sora pulled his shoulder from Ichigo's grasp and grabbed the bottom of his shirt, pulling the light fabric over his head and turning to face the stunned strawberry. Ichigo could see a faint outline on the vampires back and traced the edge of the slightly paler skin in the gloomy light of pre-dawn, sending an ever so slight shiver up Sora's spine

"I was branded around two millennia ago. I was just a child then, even by vampire standards, but the shinigami didn't care about that as they trapped and tortured my whole family. I was forced to listen as Otou-san and Okaa-san were tortured and I was forced to watch as Roxas and my younger sister Akane were tortured…Otou-san, Okaa-san and Akane all died from their injuries and we were forced to take rather…drastic measures to escape" Sora's voice was low and, as he spoke, tears welled up in his eyes, which widened as Ichigo hesitantly pulled the irritable vampire into a tight, backwards hug.

All of the houses occupants had their sob stories and no-one was forced to share their story until they were ready. It was rare that someone was found crying over their past, they figured that it was in the past and there was nothing anyone could do about it, but there was something abut Ichigo that made Sora want to open up to him. Though Sora knew that he'd have to fight tooth and nail against that feeling.

His past wasn't something that anyone should have to deal with.

Max - Okay, I know I was horrible to Ichigo and Sora in this chapter and, if I'm completely honest, I think it's overly rushed and I don't like it but I was just struggling WAY to much to continue with the chapter. Writing all the horrible scenes were, admittedly, quite a challenge since I don't do so good with writing fighting or arguing scenes but the sentence at the end about 'the full gory facts' didn't seem to full of gore, though Ichi's reaction could be because he couldn't imagine his friends doing something like that…

* * *

Sora - *Scowling and yelling* You STABBED me?

Max - Yes, I didn't like it but it was essential to the story…do you need Ichi-kun to come in and make it better?

Sora - *Thinking* If I said yes would you let him go?

Max - *Grinning*Not until I get at least one review for this chapter

Okay, Some points to clear up.

Vampires rate of blood loss - Vampires loose blood at a specified rate, depending on how recently they had drunk blood and how fresh the blood was among other things.

Freshly sated - Three hours - Bleeding as fast, possibly faster, than the average human

Three hours - Twenty-four hours - Bleeding is slow and sluggish but can still get out of hand quickly if there is more than one wound

Twenty-four hours - Onwards- The blood-flow is exceedingly slow and a vampire would practically need to be cut in half for it to have any endangering effects

Non-Keyblade magic - Non-keyblade magic tends to envelope the users hands, lower arms or upper arms depending on which level spell is being used (eg, Fire, Fira and Firaga) Non-keyblade magic is about half as strong as normal magic but, as you could tell, Sora is crazy powerful when he's pissed.

Stop-net - A Stop-net is the from that the Stop spell will take in the story. A Stop-net (and it's subsequent upgraids) is essentially a net of energy which is only visible to the vampire which is creating it (and the occasional, exceedingly old vampire) and it can be molded to any specific shape. Anything trapped inside the net will be stopped in time for a specific length of time before the magic starts to wear off.

Stop-nets can also be used to surround a specific person, being set with a tap.


	4. Note

Okay, I think a bit of a FAQ is needed for right now just to clear up a few little things.

**Have I stopped writing permanently?**  
No, of course not. I'm on a Hiatus for a little bit longer because of Polytechnic and my computer being a delicate little baby who is seemingly getting every non-viral related issue under the sun. I'll start writing again around July, when my course ends.

**Will I be continuing _ story?**  
Possibly. Some stories will be getting continued as they are now, my ideas for them not having changed at all.  
Some stories will be getting re-vamped partially or completely, and I'll give some warning because I'll likely just delete the work and re-post it as a remade version.  
Some stories I have either got no current plot ideas for, no motivation to write for, or have come to just be embarrassed by, and will not be continuing at all.

**Do I need help with _ story?**  
It's unlikely. When July comes around I'll be looking for Beta readers, but until then I will not be writing and I do not play well with other when it comes to writing my babies anyway.

**Can I continue _ story for you?**  
No. Just No. My babies are my babies, and I will not be giving permission to anyone to re-write them. End of.

**Do you have any other places where you post stories?  
**I do have an AO3 account with a few stories not on , but I am currently on Hiatus on there as well.  
The link for my AO3 is archiveofourown users / Hop_A_Long and you know the drill for spaces and such in links.


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